Supreme Court Takes Up Trump Bond Hearing Policy — SkimNews
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- US Supreme Court agreed Thursday to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings to detained immigrants, examining whether immigrants living in the US have a right to a hearing to decide if they should remain in detention while challenging deportation.
- Nine of 11 federal circuits have held that detaining immigrants without a bond hearing violates federal law, while the 5th and 8th circuits ruled immigrants accused of entering and remaining in the US illegally must stay detained during deportation proceedings.
- Trump administration lawyers told the justices the split is 'disrupting the orderly administration of immigration law,' warning of 'an unworkable patchwork of inconsistent immigration enforcement' where mandatory detention applies in some circuits but bond hearings and release are available in others.
- ACLU lawyers, representing the immigrant plaintiffs, said 'millions of noncitizens could be affected by the government's new interpretation' and argued the administration seeks to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested anywhere in the US, not just those stopped at the border.
- Earlier administrations usually allowed most non-citizens without criminal records to seek a bond hearing if arrested away from the border; the Trump-era policy, grounded in a 1996 immigration law, departs from that long-standing practice.
Why it matters: A Supreme Court ruling for the administration would lock in mandatory detention for immigrants regardless of how long they have lived in the US, affecting millions per ACLU estimates. With nine of 11 circuits already finding the policy unlawful, the decision will create the first uniform national rule on bond hearings for detained immigrants facing deportation.
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